A Thankfull November!

Ok, So I thought in October I would think about "things" I liked and was grateful for so that November would be a higher plane of gratitude. As evidenced by the sparse nature of entries, we see that my thoughts were not enough to get it onto this blog, but since I like to use this blog not only to feel creative and productive, but also to document my life, I think I will share my Thankfull November facebook posts here, with apologies to those who have already read them. Actually no apologies, this is good stuff!

AThankfull November
#1 - Eddie, My Husband, who works hard and budgets wisely so that we can afford for me to be home with blessings
#2 thru 6.
#7 - Modern Medicine especially for small blessings with fevers
#8 - A reliable car, especially on a cold rainy day, combined with the above mentioned fevered blessings and school pick-ups.
#9 - Preschool friends that make sure my little bird has fun while she learns, especially on her birthday field trip to the Chino Children's Museum.
#10 - Grapeland Elementary Public School, for teaching my kids with the kind of attention and care many others have to pay private tuition for!
#11 - Veterans of all wars and conflicts, past and present. some gave their lives, and some the lives they could have lived. Thank you for your sacrifice and service. Thanks also for those who fight and defend here at home as well.
#12 - Carbs. I know I need to be grateful in moderation, but they are really yummy, especially in the form of Rosemary Foccocia Bread hot from the oven.
#13 - Extended Family, Grandparents, Aunts and Uncles, cousins of all ages and sizes, people who I can see echoes of in my own children. I am lucky to have so many still alive and so many close enough to spend time with.
#14 - Independence, Lately my children are gaining enough independence that Eddie can watch them while I actually use my gym membership.
#15 - Libraries that foster a love of reading, ours has a weekly story time full of fun and encouragement.
#16 - Dollar Tree, and 99Cent Store, so many party favors, so little money, such a happy 4 year old birthday girl!
#17 - Parks, and friends from near and far to enjoy them with, healthy children who like to climb and swing, good friends who will push my children on the swing while I sit and watch.
#18 - A clean living room, it won't last but I have to be grateful while I can.
#19 - Surprise Parties, even when the birthday girl plans it herself and tells me when to have everyone hide and then jump out and say "surprise!" - actually especially in that case!

#20 - Little people who are not related to me, I get to work with the 18 month -3 year olds in church, they are really funny and grumpy, and stubborn, and sweet, and never fail to make me grateful that I have twins,.....not quadruplets.

# 21 - Sisters and sisters in-law, its amazing to me that not have my sisters become women that I love and admire, but also that my brothers found such amazing women and were able to convince them to marry into our family :)happy B-Day Steph!

#22 - Skype, without which my parents could not have read my kids a bedtime story last night, and my parents would have missed the insanity that is my house at bedtime.

#23 - Vacuum cleaners (did I spell that right?) I'm just saying, I am glad I don't live in the "drag the carpet outside and beat it" era.

#24 - In advance, 2 Screen Portable DVD player for my car, which means my kids actually looking forward to car rides longer than 20 minutes.

#25 - Surprises! We drove Thanksgiving morning all the way to Arizona, to my Parents house to surprise them on their first post-retirement, stateside Thanksgiving, the kids did really well and we made it in less than 8 hours, the looks of surprise made it all worth it!

#26 - Turkey soup, YUM and 10 kinds of pie handmade by my Mom, and my Brother the chef, speaking of him, I am grateful for him and his Wife Tia who let us invade their home on short notice, made us incredibly comfortable and welcome, contributed to the subterfuge of surprise, and all this when they needed to hop on a plane to D.C. Sat morning.

#27 - Grandparents that enjoy their grandchildren, My mom crafted with the bigs, broke out my childhood toys for the littles, moved many potential hazards in her home, so that I could relax a little more, My Dad took the kids to the park and out for ice cream, over to feed the ducks, and endured much noise and mess. We love Gamma and Bumpaw (not their real names)

#28 -A safe trip home, though we had a 10 hour trip home, much of it standing still or going less than 20mph, we were not in either of the 2 cars we saw rolled over and the 4 or more involved in other, more minor accidents, grateful to be home.

#29 - Dance classes that make my girls feel fancy and special, and loving Grandparents who's Christmas and Birthday gifts often contribute to the ongoing nature of these classes.

#30 - Artificial Christmas Trees. Don't get me wrong, I love me a real tree with a real tree smell, the quirky "bare spots" that occur, but a nice little artificial tree, standing up on a table where my almost 2 year olds can't reach, with pose able branches that can secure more fragile ornaments, that's a nice thing, plus it doesn't turn brown even if we set it up in Nov., and I never have to water it.

Favorite bottle prep Aid,

I went to Target shortly after the babies came home, ostensibly to purchase a bottle warmer, but I was frustrated that there wasn't one that would warm 2 bottles at one time, a book on twins I read had said to get a small crock pot that you could use later for dips etc. Once I was in the kitchen aisle I saw this beauty and thought, I'll try it.
I love this thing, not only could I have hot water to mix bottles in the middle of the night, I could use the same water if I wanted a cup of Chrysanthemum tea in the wee hours, without the hassle or noise of the microwave.  In the early weeks, I filled it and kept it upstairs at night so I didn't even have to go downstairs to make bottles. It doesn't sound like a big deal to me now, but having breast-fed all my previous babies I was used to being able to feed, burp, change, etc. without getting out of my bed, the carafe at least meant I didn't have to turn on lights and risk waking the older sisters.

My favorite things!

I am gearing up, trying to get into the habit of blogging more, and starting myself with an assignment, My Favorite Things. Not my favorite color (blue) or indulgence (DARK chocolate) but things that have made my life easier, especially in my mothering duties. things that don't quite seem important enough to make my list of things I am grateful for, though I am, just practical sorts of things.

Starting with....
My LAUNDRY ROOM SINK!
Not only can I soak soiled articles of clothing right next to the washing machine, but I can also scrub dirty shoes, bleach bath toys, and perhaps my favorite, wash small children without filling up a big tub! It was also the perfect size to put my infant tub right onto, allowing me to hose off the baby and drain the tub without even moving my child, especially nice when you have a super pooper infant who needs multiple wash cycles to get clean!
Hooray for laundry room sinks!!!

Just cuz it makes me smile!

Every now and then I remember to grab the camera and document the cuteness, this video is of the babies when they learned to "snap"
I'm still trying to get a recording of them singing Old McDonald, they only know the E-I-E-I-Oh part.

August 2011 - The Wedding Trip!

My baby brother recently got married, in NY State, on the first day of school. There were many reasons our family should have missed this occasion, let me list a few

1 - It was the first day of school, 1st grade for Liana and 3rd grade for Ella

2 - New York is a whole day on a plane, we have 5 children, that's FIVE CHILDREN, ages 8 and under, on a plane, for a whole day, 2 of them sitting on laps!

3 - Cost! 5 plane tickets, a minivan rental, hotel fees, food, snacks, etc. etc. etc.

4 - Crazy Travel Syndrome - what happens when you remove the above listed 5 children from their familiar routine and schedule, symptoms include fatigue, nausea, complaining, tantrums, whining, delirium, and loss of hair (last symptom only relating to parents)

My Handsome Husband, bravely (and/or foolishly) battled all of the above to make me happy, and we went. We didn't get to do all of the things we wanted, or eat all of the food we wanted, but we had a fabulous time and I am really grateful to have been able to be there with (most of) the rest of my family to welcome my beautiful new sister-in-law to our crazy-fabulous family. I am still doing laundry and other catching up activities, but we are safely in our home, The big girls are happily settling into their school routines, and one of these days the little 3 will sleep through the night again,...Right?

I am still catching up on a lot of things, so these are a brief representation of some of my favorite things we did.

What could be better than a cold otterpop on a hot NJ day, with Grandpa and the cousins?

Breakfast in Brooklyn (that's my brother the groom in the background)

The Prospect Park Zoo in Brooklyn

On the Staten Island Ferry to see the Statue of Liberty.

Eddie's Calander shot at the Full Moon resort where the wedding was held.

Some of the flower girls picking wild flowers.

Amalia getting in some quality Grandpa time

Chillaxin outside of our lodge.
Exploring the frog pond, watching the tadpoles, trying not to fall in.

Getting lavander blooms ready to toss at the newlyweds, I would include pictures from the ceremony, but we were too busy wrangling children and listening to the beautiful vows and music to take pictures.

Cheese and crackers...and the fruit that was probably supposed to be decorative, but hungry twins are not good guests!

At the reception.

Blowing bubbles with cousins and friends outside of the reception tent!

One last picture before leaving for the airport!

Nina Can Be....

Nina can be many things, funny, sweet, grumpy, prcocious, tender, insightful, the list goes on and on, the other day however, her older sisters helped her explore a few specific things, they staged a "professional model shoot" and so without further ado, I now turn my blog over to artistic and creative directors Ella and Liana. (all photo credits to Ella age 8)

Nina Can Be...

A Princess

A Dancer

A Cheerleader

A Bride

A Jazz/Tap Dancer

A Zookeeper

A Woodland Fairy

A Doll

A Prisoner

A Witch

A Cat....Meowww

A Chinese Girl

A Babysitter

A Florist

A Hula Dancer

A Waitress

A Ballerina

A Drummer

And a Movie Star

And now here is her Debut Short Film

Happy Anniversary part 2

So my handsome husband is also clever, he took me to Cirque Du Soleil (literally Circus of the Sun). He arranged the babysitting and kept it a secret right up to when we drove up to the arena. It was an incredible show and we had such a fabulous time. A fantastic surprise and a special treat to have 2 dates all to ourselves in as many weeks!

And since we went to a matinee performance there was still time to come home to a housefull of men watching the MMA title fights in our living room - isn't it romantic? It was actually still great for me because I didn't have to cook, just order an additional pizza and Eddie always cleans up after his friends.

Happy Anniversary Baby I love you tons!

Ten Years and Counting.

My handsome husband recently came up with the perfect analogy for our married life, a circus!

We started out 10 years ago with just the two of us in center ring and have been adding side shows at a steady rate.

That said, our anniversary recently happened and it was a wonderful intermission from the crazy!

The morning began with the usual rush of getting everyone ready for school and preschool but was punctuated with a gift of dove dark chocolate and a fabulous musical card from my hubby, including a lovely letter that made me cry. Once the 3 largest were out the door my husband and I went shopping... for clothes, ...for me, ...with only 2 helpers,... who slept through the trip in their stroller.

After the kindergarten pick up we took the younger 4 to a dear friend (You remember Super P from previous entries) who watched them while Eddie and I went target shooting at a local indoor range. Before you all decide to tease My Man about how he celebrated our anniversary let me say that this was my idea, I haven't been shooting in years and have had it on the calendar several times when someone got sick or something else came up.

I had a lot of fun just being with my man at the range and I was pleasantly surprised that I could still hit a target at 25 feet. Of course we were both surprised when I could hit the bulls eye,... at 40+ feet,... on purpose,... more than once!

After the range we had time to pick up sushi takeout from our favorite local joint and ate it in the comfort of the van listening to country music and actually carrying on a conversation without interruption. It was bliss.

We picked up Ella from school, the others from the super Hherroes and went home to do homework and get ready for the new wonders in our life the Deans who came and babysat while we went out to dinner at the Pomona Valley Mining Co. where my husband has been promising to take me since we started dating 11 years ago.

The food was good, the view was better, and the company was the best!

After dinner we walked back to the truck and enjoyed the city lights and starry sky and then my man surprised me with this.

It was a magical ending to a fabulous day, we were both happy to go home and sneak kisses from the sleeping big 3 and tuck the last 2 into bed.

I'm really blessed to love and be loved by such a wonderful man and I look forward to the next 10 years and the next and the next etc.

The happiest family on earth!

I last blogged about Ella and i wanted to give her her own entry because she is special and deserves it, but now I would like to gush for a bit about my family, and more specifically about my parents and siblings.

They are the best ever.


When we knew that Ella would be baptised so close to the holidays we didn't know if any of my side of the extended family would be able to make it, but my parents made a special trip to be here for her special day. A trip from Hong Kong to SoCal is no little deal. They came out a few days early and spent some real quality time with us, it was wonderful to have time without a lot of demands, time where my kids got to really share their personalities with their grandparents.




Saturday morning, my sister and her family flew in from Massachusetts, they stayed with us at a very inconvenient time for them, right in the middle of a household move to Washington state. They cut their move short to be able to be here with us, I can't say how grateful I am for their willingness to do that, and how much it meant for them to do that.


Finally, my baby brother who is not a baby at all, but a highly successful marketing manager with Harper Collins, took time and money, and time (again) away from his lovely fiancee, and plans for their fabulous wedding this August.

Everyone made it in Saturday morning and were there to celebrate Ella's Baptism with us. We spent a lovely Sunday together, mostly just visiting and talking.

Then came Monday.... I am very grateful to my Brother-in-law and Sister for including us in their trip to Disneyland.

This is a feat I have never before attempted, and for good reason. We had 7 adults and 7 children and as far as I am concerned, that is the appropriate adult to child ratio.

We had a lovely day, the children had a lot of fun. Although I personally think "Mr Toad's Wild Ride" should have a bigger disclaimer, something along the lines of "unless you like to be shaken around in the dark with a loud cacophony of sound do not enter here." Thankfully things got much better after we convinced my scaredy girls that not every ride would be like that. Highlights of the day included personal audiences with princesses, Goofy's backyard, and Small World.

We ended the day with a nice sit down dinner at IHOP close to Disneyland, but far enough thst we got to have a whole back room area to ourselves. A great end to a great day.


Tuesday brought with it a reality check, Mark had to get back to work, and the big girls had to return to school. Though Nina enjoyed a morning with her cousins all to herself. My niece L set up a fabulous school for spies, she called her students her "paddo-wad learners" (we ate lunch next to the jedi-school training camp at Disneyland).

Wednesday we said good bye to our cousins and sighed as we got back to our routine, grateful for the fabulous time we had, but now a little more sad because we remembered what we were missing by not living close to this part of our family. We are so grateful for such loving, generous, helpful, family.